The Phantom Phenomenon

Power Rangers Turbo, Episode 23

Original Airdate: 09-17-1997

Last Time: Divatox learned the ins and outs of the service industry.

Justin is playing some soccer. And I cannot imagine a less appealing opening scene. He and mini-Carlos from last episode work together to score a goal. Just then, Justin notices a light come crashing to Earth. I'm kind feeling some deja vu. Justin wonders what that light was, but then decides to ignore it and go back to the game. Justin kind of sucks. Credits! (Turbocharge for More!)

Back at the soccer game, the adult who is presumably in charge ever since Adam disappered into the mists of time, calls for "last point." The ball ends up getting kicked in the woods, and mini-Carlos offers to go get it. Mini-Carlos grabs the ball, but something else grabs his attention. We don't see what it is as he heads back to the field. In the space-sub, Divatox is counting up her loot. The final tally says that Divatox's treasure is worth 10 billion dollars. Er....so, she wins, then? No, because it isn't enough for her, so she decides to rob a bank. I suddenly miss the days when she'd come up with hopelessly convoluted plots to blows the Rangers up with bombs.

Down at the woods, mini-Carlos is leading Justin to what he found earlier. It's a crashed space ship. They hear a noise and split. Down at the bank, Bulk and Skull are ready to start their new jobs as bank guards. Oh, God. Bulk immediately stops an old lady and searches her ice cream for money. Actually, it is kind of odd that a woman who bring her groceries into the bank with her. She disagrees and punches Bulk. Outside the bank, Elgar and Rygog, wearing trenchcoats and fake beards, are coming up with a plan. They eventually decide to untie Bulk's shoelaces. Elgar then tells him his shoelaces are untied. Bulk bends over and ties them as the goons enter the bank. The Piranhatrons are also in disguise. The alarms go off.

Back at the Power Chamber, Alpha 6 notes that the bank is being robbed. Dimitria, ever the supporter of capitalism, calls in the Rangers to protect the precious, precious money. When the revolution comes, she will be first against the wall. At the bank, Elgar and his goons have successfully robbed the bank, but are then beaten up by an invisible force. The Rangers show up to find their enemies already beaten. The Rangers decide to investigate. They take some witness statements but get nowhere. So they decide that the security camera will undoubtedly have recorded the invisible guy who saved the day because....well, I can't imagine why they think it'll work, to be honest.

Anyway, the Rangers are picking up the money at the crime scene when Cassie notices a phantom-like presence in the corner of her eye. Back at the Power Chamber, Dimitria asks for a visual description of the phantom. Surprisingly, they don't really know what he looks like. The Rangers speculate about the phantom some more, and Justin remembers that space craft he found earlier that day. I guess when you lead a life like Justin's, you tend to forget about mysterious craft from outer space. However, Justin had earlier made an oath to mini-Carlos that he would tell no one about the spacecraft, so he can't inform the other Rangers. That's stupid. Everyone else is flummoxed.

Down in the space-sub, Divatox is angrily debriefing Rygog and Elgar. She does not believe their tale of ghostly apparitions that appear from the ether to stop bank robberies, and sends them back out there to finish the job. Elsewhere, Bulk and Skull have been reassigned to guard a gold mine. Elgar and some Piranhatrons immediately show up. God hates Bulk and Skull. Bulk and Skull decide discretion is the better part of valor and flee.

The Rangers are still examining the tape from the earlier bank robbery. Surprisingly, the video tape does not contain any footage of the invisible phantom. The alarm goes off and the Rangers head off to save the gold mine. Apparently the Rangers have gone from protecting mankind to protecting the liquid assets of mankind. By the time they get there, though, the phantom has already beaten up the villains. The Rangers split up to try and find him. Cassie spots him behind a car. She approaches his blurry outline and asks him who he is. Answer: "A friend." Who is this Phantom Ranger? (Spoiler: It will never, ever, ever be revealed.)

Back at the Power Chamber, the Rangers discover that the Phantom Ranger is kind of like the Predator, because you can see his outline when he moves. He is unlike the Predator in that people like the Predator. Dimitria reveals that the Phantom Ranger originated on Eltair. Apparently this means that Dimitria doesn't know what's going on either. Justin says that he can't tell anyone about the mysterious spaceship he found because he swore. The other Rangers understand, and he goes off the check it out alone.

At the crash site, mini-Carlos is keeping watch. Justin shows up and ask what he's doing. Mini-Carlos says he's waiting for the alien. Justin says there is no alien. Justin is a dirty liar. Rygog and some Piranhatrons have managed to outsmart alleged-genius Justin and have followed him to the crash site.

The other Rangers are hanging out and are pretty sure that Justin's probably all right. Divatox is also waiting for the phantom to return to the ship. She decides to call back yesterday and plant a bomb. Hooray! I missed bombs, if only because the alternative is even dumber. Justin's communicator goes off and mini-Carlos asks what it was. Justin says that it's an alarm and that mini-Carlos has to go home now. Mini-Carlos disagrees. Piranhatrons attack and capture the two. Rygog plants the bomb. Justin, however, manages to break free. Great. Rygog sends the remaining Piranhatrons to get Justin. Mini-Carlos escapes as Justin fights in one the least convincing fight scenes in Power Rangers History. The Piranhatrons recapture Justin. Great!

Rygog and Divatox countdown. The Phantom Ranger shows up and knocks Rygog over. Rygog can't get up. C. Everett Koop, why have you forsaken us? Phantom Ranger manages to get the bomb off of his spaceship and throws it into the air where it detonates harmlessly. Divatox fires the torpedoes, because it's fifteen minutes into the episode and that means, come hell or high water, she is going to fire some torpedoes. Justin finally manages to call the other Rangers. Everyone fights some Piranhatrons, but then they all notice the torpedoes speeding towards them. Phantom moves to intercept, but notices that mini-Carlos has been recaptured. He can only save either his spaceship or the ancillary character. He chooses mini-Carlos, and his spaceship gets destroyed and he is now trapped on Earth. That's disappointing on a number of levels.

The Phantom Ranger grieves over his lost ship. I grieve over the fact that the Phantom Ranger will be sticking around. But then he reveals that the blown up ship was just a decoy and his real ship is okay! So now he'll go away forever! He gets into his ship and it very, very slowly takes off. At the soccer field, Justin creates an alibi so that no one suspects that he's the Blue Ranger. Mini-Carlos recounts the adventure to his friends. They find the story to be poorly-written and question the logic of a number of details. Adam's replacement as soccer coach isn't buying it either, and sends them off to the field. Justin believes him, though. Cassie shows up to start pining over the Phantom Ranger, heralding the birth of a truly painful running subplot. She wonders if he'll ever return. Carlos doesn't know, because who can say where the vagaries of the toy market will lead any of us. Show Over!

Next Time: More Invisibility!